{"id":537,"date":"2013-07-27T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thisrestlesspilgrim.wordpress.com\/?p=537"},"modified":"2015-03-19T13:08:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T20:08:39","slug":"bible-alone-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2013\/07\/27\/bible-alone-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible alone? Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sola<\/a>Today I’d like to speak about “Bible Alone”<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Christianity, also known by its Latin name,\u00a0“Sola Scriptura”<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Sola Scriptura<\/em>\u00a0is an important issue to discuss because it underpins virtually all of Protestantism. It was the Formal Principle<\/em> of the Reformation. This topic has come up in every discussion I’ve ever had with non-Catholics. It is the major Protestant presupposition and, although the Catholic Faith can certainly be defended from Sacred Scripture, this presupposition really needs to be tackled early on in any Catholic-Protestant dialogue.<\/p>\n

This article is another of those half-written posts which languished in my\u00a0“Drafts”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0folder for a long, long time. I had intended to write a substantial and thorough article concerning\u00a0Sola Scriptura<\/em>\u00a0since my own realization concerning the shortcomings of this doctrine\u00a0was the tipping point in my return to the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

However, once again, my desire to write a thorough post has prevented me from writing anything at all. I resisted writing until I had time to do the subject matter justice.\u00a0So, once again I am forced to return to the words of G.K. Chesterton “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”<\/em><\/span>. Rather than waiting until I can do a perfect job I’m just going to sit down, write something and get it out there. So, please put on your crash helmets…here we go…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Interpreting the meaning of “Sola Scriptura”<\/h2>\n

At this point it might be an idea to speak about definitions.\u00a0The exact meaning of\u00a0Sola Scriptura<\/em>\u00a0can’t really be exactly nailed down because, rather ironically, these words mean something slightly different to each Protestant group.<\/p>\n

However, I would say that the mainstream Evangelical understanding of Sola Scriptura<\/em> is that the Bible is the only infallible source of authority and doctrine.\u00a0There are some variations either side of this view, of course.\u00a0Some groups do have some concept of Sacred Tradition, an appreciation of Creeds and Church Authority, while others move in the other direction, rejecting anything not explicitly found in the Bible.<\/p>\n

Bible Beginnings<\/h2>\n

I’ve told parts of my story\u00a0before<\/a>, but I’d like to take a few minutes to retell a little bit of it again, this time focusing on the role of Sacred Scripture in that journey.<\/p>\n

At university I had a profound religious renewal. \u00a0It was during this time that my faith became truly\u00a0my own and not simply inherited from my mother.\u00a0Instrumental in this renewal of faith was an encounter with Sacred Scripture<\/a> and a Catholic community called “Verbum Dei”<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The community of Verbum Dei<\/em> was associated with a parish in the city where I was attending university and I soon began attending their events.\u00a0Those of you who grew up in Ancient Rome will know that\u00a0Verbum Dei<\/em>\u00a0is Latin for\u00a0“Word of God”<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0Praying of Sacred Scripture was a prime focus in the community and this formed a large part of my renewed faith formation. \u00a0As I experienced the impact of the Word of God in my heart and life, my love for the Bible grew greatly and it became my\u00a0“daily bread”<\/em><\/span> in a very real way.<\/p>\n

We didn’t just read<\/em> Scripture though, we prayed<\/em> it. We didn’t just attempt to understand and exegete Scripture, but to read it slowly and meditatively, listening to the promptings of the Spirit. If you have ever come into contact with Lectio Divina<\/a>, you will know the sort of thing I’m talking about.<\/p>\n

After I left university, I became increasingly disenchanted with the Catholic Church<\/a>. In the face of lukewarm parishes and sermons filled with pallid platitudes, Sacred Scripture continued to be my source of light and\u00a0sustenance.\u00a0Over time, almost\u00a0imperceptibly, I became a “Sola Scripture”<\/em><\/span> Christian. \u00a0I came to believe that Scripture, and only Scripture had authority over me.\u00a0I loved Sacred Scripture and I was therefore very comfortable with any doctrine which placed what I loved most above all else.<\/p>\n

However, after several years of experiencing the consequences of\u00a0Sola Scriptura<\/em>, together with some well-placed questions asked by a certain Benedictine monk, I eventually came to reject this doctrine, concluding that it was logically inconsistent, unworkable, unhistorical and even unscriptural.<\/p>\n

I’ll pick this up again tomorrow…<\/p>\n

Part 1 \u00a0| Part 2<\/a> | Part 3<\/a> | Part 4<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I’d like to speak about “Bible Alone”\u00a0Christianity, also known by its Latin name,\u00a0“Sola Scriptura”. Sola Scriptura\u00a0is an important issue to discuss because it underpins virtually all of Protestantism. It was the Formal Principle of the Reformation. This topic has come up in every discussion I’ve ever had with non-Catholics. It is the major Protestant presupposition and, although the Catholic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[302,2402,2969,136,539],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-faith","tag-bible","tag-bible-alone-series","tag-featured","tag-scripture","tag-sola-scriptura"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55984,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions\/55984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}